ICHKERIAN MINISTER FLEES TO ITALY ON PUTIN'S HEELS

Kommersant (Russian Daily) - March 15, 2007
While Russian President Vladimir Putin was meeting with Italian Romano Prodi in Italy, former Ichkerian health minister Umar Khanbiev was asking for political asylum in that country and made statements about human rights abuses in Chechnya. Khanbiev arrived on Tuesday from Germany and was met by Italian politicians at the airport. Yesterday he held a large press conference in Rome, where he called on Italian politicians to â€śtell the truth about human rights in Chechnya.â€ť
Prodi did not react to Khanbiev's statements. Putin suggested that he return to Chechnya and work as a doctor.
Umar Khanbiev headed the Ichkerian Ministry of Health in 1997, immediately after the election of Aslan Maskhadov president. His brother Magomed was minister of defense at the same time. In the autumn of 1999, when federal forces bombed Grozny by air, Khanbiev opened a hospital in Grozny and personally treated the wounded. He was taken prisoner when federal forces entered the city in January 2000 and placed in the Chernokozovo filtration camp. It has been suggested that businessman Malik Saidullaev helped him get out of the camp.
Khanbiev moved to Baku, where he represented Maskhadov before Western politicians and human rights workers. His brother at that time was in the mountains with Maskhadov. He was named the general representative of the Ichkerian president abroad in 2004 and replaced Akhmed Zakaev for some time. His office was eliminated after Maskhadov's death in March 2005. The succeeding Ichkerian president, Abdul-Khalim Saidullaev, is represented only by Zakaev, his foreign minister. The prosecutor's office of Chechnya says that it has no information concerning Khanbiev's participation in illegal armed groups and has no criminal cases open against him. He has been living in Germany in recent years and his motivation for seeking asylum in Italy is unclear.
Photo: Umar Khanbiev and Marco Pannella yesterday, during the press conference organized by the Nonviolent Radical Party.